Lake Havasu. While I'm not overly fond of the town itself, this place happens to have THE BEST sunsets you could ever possibly imagine. The crystal clear blue skys, the booming thunderstorms over the lake, and the beautiful hues of the setting sun make photography in this town a snap (pun intended). I guess I owe this little pond a debt of thanks because it turned my love of nature into a love of capturing nature...on digital film. I also learned that changing the exposure, contrast, saturation in post can change a good picture into a great picture but finding the balance between editing and the brass tax of the photo is a fine line you have to learn to walk.
The first image is completely unedited. I figured that it would be counterproductive to edit a photo that is so still and complete on its own. I probably could have punched up the color like I did on the following 3 but I think the most stunning photos are also the most real. Now after taking a few stills and editing them I've started realizing how little of what we see in the media is realistic. I've started looking at magazines and images online and can start picking out how the photograph was edited but at the end of the day you still have to have good "bare bones" in a photograph before you start tweaking it.
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But for sake of argument lets look on the flip side of the coin. I have on occasion found that enhancing the color of the photo actually makes it obviously more visually impressive and to be honest more like what it was like to view it in person. For example this shot of a thunderstorm rolling in over the lake was absolutely stunning in person but I found that when I photographed it, it looked dull. Probably with the low level of light and the fact I'm not using a camera I can truly adjust I had to go back and doctor the photo to make it look more like what I was seeing in person.
I guess what you see isn't always what you get in photography or in life for that matter.
But hey, it always comes down to perspective right?
Black and white photography speaks to me more than any other medium out there. Maybe it was the old black and whites I grew up seeing in history books or maybe it's just "edgier" (if that is even a word) but either way black and white photography has been and probably always will be my favorite. Experimenting with black and white photography taught me a lot about the importance of lighting. When you take color of the photo you're really only left with lighting and shadows and if your photo isn't well lit you're going to get a messy blob of grey with not a whole lot of contrast. I used to think you turn any photo to a black and white resolution it always looks classier. But after a lot of trial and error I've realized that black and white will always make something appear "older" but it doesn't always make it look better. The content of your photo, lighting and contrast will make or break you every time in this medium.
Then I also discovered that black and white isn't as simple as it sounds. There are many versions of black and white photos. These photos I gleaned from a photo treatment on my iPhone called Danburry. Danburry tends to show a lot more contrast than a flat black and white photo which tend to appear more grey than anything. I've also noticed that Danburry tends to be a bit more gentle on portraits as well where as true black and white photos tend to make portraits very dull in comparison.
And perhaps one of my favorite things is what I've dubbed spot editing. Photoshop was definitely my friend in this one. I've never worked with a layering effect and was surprised just how much information is out there on the web on how to achieve photos like this. Its not as hard as it looked. Ok, posing for the picture was a bit hard because I don't like straight on photos of myself but the things we do for art.
This silhouette photo was my first attempt at actually staging a lighting affect and it wasn't nearly as easy as I thought it would be. I had to increase the exposure to the max to make it appear that I was truly in silhouette when I wasn't even close. But hey I got the desired effect!
